Who Do You Look Like: A God-Like Community Series

WHO DO YOU LOOK LIKE?

A GOD-LIKE COMMUNITY

Ephesians 4.24-5.2

S: Community

C: A God-Like Community

Th: Building Up in Love; Doing Our Work

Pr: WE ARE CALLED TO CHRISTLIKENESS.

?: What? What does that look like?

KW: Characteristics

TS: We will find in our study of Ephesians five characteristics that show what Christlikeness looks like to the world.

Type: Propositional

The ____ characteristic is…

I. TRUTH (25)

II. JUSTICE (26-27)

III. INTEGRITY (28)

IV. EDIFICATION (29-30)

V. KINDNESS (31-32)

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• Live out the truth that is possible (put on the new self).

• Love is the key; it encompasses all the characteristics.

Version: ESV

RMBC 01 October 06 AM

INTRODUCTION:

“Building Up in Love; Doing Our Work” has been our discipleship emphasis theme this year.

And during this theme, we have been asking…

1. What kind of community do we want to be?

We have been studying through Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus asking this question.

Paul starts out by describing the work God has done in them, which in turn, describes the work God is doing in us.

First…

2. We know that we are a called community.

We have been called out of the darkness, according to the goodness of God, and been given every spiritual blessing.

As a result, we have been called to be together, this very day, in this very place, to be one of many of His local communities that are to make a kingdom impact.

We can do this, because…

3. We have become a transformed community.

In our second study, we saw that God has changed us.

We have brought into the kingdom, not because of what we have done, but because of what God has done for us.

We have entered in by His grace, not our works, and as a result, we have been changed.

We are now different than we were before.

Now Paul shifts gears and describes this difference.

In chapter three, we discovered that…

4. We are to be a praying community.

While there is much to talk about when it comes to prayer, we did note that Paul prayed differently than we usually do.

We often pray about personal and physical needs.

Paul’s prayer is bigger.

Paul prayed that this community of believers in Ephesus would understand how great God’s love for them was – how long, how wide, how high and how deep.

God wants us, as a community, to know His strength and His love, and praying for that is encouraged, because God loves to answer that kind of prayer.

Last week, John Fischer spoke and reminded us that…

5. We are to be a community that is diligent in living out the unity we have been given.

John did a great job in connecting with our themes.

We have been given unity.

This means we are to live it.

That is our responsibility.

We are to set aside what we want, and discover what God wants for our community.

TRANSITION:

So, let me ask this question…

1. Are you an imitator (5.1)?

This is where our Scripture text takes us today, for it says…

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

ILL Imitation: ’Cause I’m a Woman

When school started, a mom was trying to give her first-grade daughter a little more responsibility than she had in kindergarten. She gave her these instructions: “I’m going to get into the shower now. Because you’re in 1st grade, I expect you to be able to pick out your outfit and get dressed by yourself. I’d like you to be dressed by the time I get out of the shower." When the mom finished, her daughter was still sitting there not yet dressed.

“Breanne,” the mom said, “I thought you were going to be more grown up now that you’re in 1st grade!”

“But Mom, I am acting like a grown up woman.”

“How is that?”

“I have nothing to wear!”

Becky Tibbs, Petersburg, Ill

Well, that is the very point that Paul makes here, children imitate their parents.

So…

2. Just as children imitate their parents, we are to live out God’s example to us.

This is why the title of today’s message is, “Who Do You Look Like?”

We are to imitate our heavenly Father.

In other words…

3. WE ARE CALLED TO CHRISTLIKENESS.

We are called to be like Jesus.

But this does not just happen.

It requires intention on our part.

It means that I am going to use a word that I have been repeating over and over.

As we come to our text today, it means that…

4. We are to be morally deliberate.

I was reading an article from Christianity Today this week that spoke about how the church has become morally sloppy.